The
combination of low power, smaller size, and lower cost is
requiring developers of motor control designs in consumer,
home, industrial and automotive apps to move to exotic
solutions such as MEMS, forcing re-evaluation of the fuzzy
logic and PID algorithms now used.

Two popular approaches to high level
embedded design, model-based development using Simulink and
model based design using UML/SysML can be used effectively in
a wide range of robotic and machine control
systems.

This article details a simple algorithm
utilizing conventional microcontroller blocks to control
commercially available H-bridges to properly commutate a
bipolar stepper motor through a microstepping
profile.

Michael Parker of Altera Corp. describes
how to use an ARM/FPGA-based SoC for real-time machine
control algorithm operations. He also describes how the SoC
can function as a network processor to link up to the real-
time network protocols used in many industrial automation
applications.

ST Micro’s Tom Hopkins describes how the
L6470 programmable state machine based L6470 simplifies the
implementation of multiple motor controls by integrating a
digital control core with the driver IC to manage user-
defined movement profiles with minimal loading on the main
microcontroller.

This article provides a brief overview of
the ITAE [Integral of the time weighted absolute error]
method for PI tuning, describing a stepwise method to be
followed for a variety of field-oriented motor-control
apps.

Here is how to use the peripheral-rich
eCOG1Xin embedded motor control apps to host a number of
motor control specific peripherals to aid in executing the
the application on the microcontroller processor
core.

The authors describe how they implemented
a very high performance digital PID controller loop in an
FPGA, detailing why an FPGA was chosen, as well as PID
control considerations specific to an FPGA implementation and
its verification and HW/SW integration.